Three faiths sponsor talk on Holocaust

By ANGELA CAVE- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Faith leaders in Clifton Park don't want the Holocaust to become a "footnote in history" - so they've teamed up to sponsor a presentation highlighting the Holocaust's causes, lessons about tolerance and implications for the future.

St. Edward the Confessor parish, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and Congregation Beth Shalom developed "The Holocaust Revisited: A Retrospective Review," to be held Sept. 29, 2 p.m., at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.

Representatives from each faith community will make remarks; Dr. Stephen Berk, a professor of Holocaust and Jewish studies at Union College in Schenectady, will be the keynote speaker. Photographs and items from the New England Holocaust Institute in North Adams, Mass., will be on display.

Dr. Berk, who is Jewish, grew up in Brooklyn during World War II and remembers seeing photos of American and British soldiers liberating concentration camps in Europe.

"It left an indelible imprint on my mind," he said, adding that it's now his "mission" to urge people to stand up against hatred and discrimination: "If they are not checked, they can lead to horrendous consequences. It is not enough to not participate in bad things. It's not enough to remain silent. One has to adamantly and unequivocally say that these things are wrong."

Dr. Berk has been sending this warning to his students for 30 years. Through his upcoming keynote, he wants to "alert people to what took place, to remember the dead, to remember the evil. Hate is an abomination. The past really has a way of informing our present."

He will discuss Adolf Hitler, the Jewish response and resistance to the Holocaust, the heroism of survivors and people who risked their lives to shelter Jews, and warning signs that modern intolerance is headed in an ominous direction.

"Any bigot can get on [the internet] and spew the worst of things," Dr. Berk explained, but hate "cannot be considered to be acceptable."

He'll also discuss anti-Christian environments in countries like China, Egypt and Nigeria and take questions from the audience.

Michael Weitzman, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom who spearheaded the event and formed the coalition of faith communities to present it, hopes the day is a community learning experience. He got the idea after returning from a trip abroad where he visited concentration camp sites and Holocaust museums.

"We really didn't understand the enormity of what happened and the human toll," Mr. Weitzman said. He wanted to share his photographs with others and figured his neighbors in southern Saratoga County were as unenlightened about the Holocaust as he was.

The three faith communities have contributed to publicity and development; high school students and young members of St. Edward's have been invited.

Mr. Weitzman said the interfaith aspect of the event makes it "unique. I'm hoping this will lead to other efforts in the future of cooperation and joint endeavors."

Dr. Berk said the sponsors' working together makes perfect sense.

"Religion at its best is teaching love for one another, a belief that we are all created in the divine image and therefore we all have responsibility for each other," he said. "The God that we worship does not want people to kill each other. People in faith communities should draw upon the best inspiration from their tradition to draw together and eliminate hatred."

(Register at www.cphlibrary.org or call 371-8622.)[[In-content Ad]]